Last week I picked Skipper up from after-school care a little early, and watched the end of her kung fu class. As all the other kids gathered up their things and trooped out of the room to go to the main area, Skipper helped the teacher put away gear, in a companionable way that suggested she had done this many times before. Afterward, I asked her if she always helps the teacher, and she said she does. I asked why, and she said "I like it. It gives me a chance to ask her all the questions I have about forms, because of my One-Minute Question-Maker."
I had not heard of the One-Minute Question-Maker, and I was intrigued, so I interrogated her a little. Skipper explained that she thinks of at least one question a minute all day every day. Some of them she forgets before she can ask them, some are silly and she dismisses them. But mostly, she asks them. She asks and asks and asks. She stores them up and them they pour out.
Also, the guinea pigs are feeling more lovable. We finally figured out that they're a lot more fun to hold one at a time, because when they're together, Momo gets pissed off at Snufkin* and snaps at his face.
What else? Halloween happened. It was a bit of a debacle. Skipper decided she did want to have a costume, but didn't want to go trick-or-treating, because she gets pretty stressed asking strangers for things. We were fine with that - it's not a bad thing to have a realistic understanding of yourself and how you will experience things and what you will enjoy. (Skipper only rarely attends birthday parties these days, because she doesn't enjoy them. We try to follow up the declining of the invitation with a one-on-one playdate with the birthday kid instead, which Skipper does enjoy.) So she assembled a classic witch costume in which she would greet trick-or-treaters.
Duchess had said she's too big to trick-or-treat, and feels self-conscious about looming up on people's porches like an obnoxious teenager. We thought she would go out with friends, but somehow she ended up staying home. (She was also pretty sick.) Whatever the case, we ended up on Halloween night with both kids at home. Skipper decided she did want to trick-or-treat just on our block and then come home, and Duchess decided she would hastily put together a black cat costume and go along as Skipper's familiar. They went out together, which was delightful - I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly and cheerfully that came together. They came back five minutes later, both very resentful and aggrieved. Skipper had decided she had had enough just as Duchess was picking up steam and starting to get really enthusiastic and happy about getting to trick-or-treat after all, and Duchess was angry at having her enthusiasm ruined, and Skipper was angry at being made to feel guilty for her decision. I have seen the adorable photos of my friends and coworkers' children in their costumes, and the only photographic evidence I have of Halloween 2017 are these photos of my two petulant children.
After they seemed to have recuperated a little, I took them both out again for a small-scale trick-or-treating. We stayed within two blocks of the house and went to a bunch of houses that weren't getting much traffic, and were happy to give large handfuls to Skipper. Duchess stayed on the sidewalk with me, but she was still pleased to get to go out and see the decorated houses and the kids' costumes. Everybody was fine with the evening, in the end, after muddling through the emotional muck.
*To be fair, it's understandable why she's pissed off at him. She's neutered, but he isn't, and he spends most of the time when they're together attempting to convince her that it's Sexy Time (which male guinea pigs do by making a funny chuckling noise and rolling their hips amusingly as they walk), and she spends all that time either running away from him or explaining to him at great length that It Is Not (in a torrent of irritated chirping noises and, if necessary, a sort of guinea pig hip check).
